1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to mounting assemblies for attaching lightweight articles to surfaces, specifically metallic and non-metallic surfaces. More specifically the present invention relates to a mounting assembly which enables a user to mount a lightweight article to a metallic surface (like a refrigerator, file cabinet or bumper of a vehicle) by means of a magnet or a non-metallic surface (like a wall, white board or a glass pane) by means of an adhesive. Such an adaptable mounting assembly allows a user to fix a lightweight article to any solid surface.
2. Background Art
In general, mounting assemblies for lightweight articles incorporate a fastening means like an adhesive layer to adhere to a variety of surfaces, metallic or otherwise. While such a configuration is not dependent upon a solid surface to which it adheres, the configuration is usually not adequate for removably fixing the article to a solid surface. Over time the adhesive character diminishes and finally fails after repeated mountings. Furthermore, if the adhesive is too cohesive, then the article is not easily removed without destroying or damaging the article or mounting assembly.
A typical alternative to adhesive mounting assemblies is a magnetic mounting structure. Such mounting structures include the use of a magnetic surface to adhere the article to a solid surface. However, such magnetic configurations are limited to solid surfaces to which a magnetic surface can attach.
Existing mounting assemblies that incorporate a magnetic surface and an adhesive surface that operate to mount an article to a magnet (sheet or otherwise) which in turn is mounted to a solid surface which encourages magnetic adhesion. Examples of such mounting assemblies are incorporated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,956 issued to to Brennan in 1997 (hereinafter Brennan ""956); U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,489 issued to Blegen in 1994 (hereinafter Blegen ""489); U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,174 issued to Blegen in 1993 (hereinafter Blegen ""174); U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,871 issued to McCready in 1992 (hereinafter McCready ""87); and U.S. Pat. No. 3,629,756 issued to Holtz in 1971 (hereinafter Holtz ""756). However, each of these references do not provide an adhesive layer or region adjacent to a magnetic surface for purposes of non-magnetic mounting an article to a surface.
The Brennan ""956 and McCready ""871 references and the U.S. patent application Publication No. U.S. 2002/0084880 A1 attributed to Barbaera-Guilem et al (hereinafter Barbera-Guilem ""880) disclose an adhesive layer on the magnetic surface that is placed adjacent to a solid surface. However, the Brennan ""956 reference does not disclose or teach the use of an adhesive layer to mount the article (in Brennan""s case a post card) to a solid non-metallic surface. The Brennan ""956 reference relies solely upon the magnetic layer to mountthe article to a metallic surface. The adhesive layeron the magnetic surface functions to fix a paper back to a postcard thereby internalizing the magnetic surface and allowing the user to write on the back of a postcard. Similarly, the McCready ""871 and Barbaera-Guilem ""880 references do not disclose or teach the use of a magnetic surface to mount an article to a solid surface that encourages magnetic adhesion. The magnetic regions of the McCready ""871 and Barbaera-Guilem ""880 references assist in magnetic separation or filtration beyond the mounting surface. None of the references address the problems associated with the limitations of using one type of mounting system to fix a lightweight article to a surface.
In view of the above described deficiencies associated with mounting assemblies for lightweight articles, the present invention has been developed to alleviate these drawbacks and provide further benefits to the user. These enhancements and benefits are described in greater detail hereinbelow with respect to several alternative embodiments of the present invention.
The present invention in its several disclosed embodiments alleviates the drawbacks described above with respect to conventional mounting systems for lightweight articles and incorporates several additionally beneficial features.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a mounting system that allows a user to mount a lightweight article to a variety of solid surfaces irrespective of what the solid surface is comprised of.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a mounting system capable of removably mounting a lightweight article to a solid surface.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a mounting system capable of permanently fixing a lightweight article to a solid surface.
It is an additional object of the present invention to modify existing magnetic mounting systems with the application of an adhesive layer to expand the types of surfaces to which a lightweight article can be fixed.
The beneficial effects described above apply generally to each of the exemplary devices and mechanisms disclosed herein of the mounting system. The specific structures through which these benefits are delivered will be described in detail hereinbelow.